Abstract

To date, the only species of leech reported from the American Alligator, Alligator mississippiensis is Placobdella multilineata. Seven specimens of a previously undescribed species of Placobdella were collected from the feet and lower jaw of a single female alligator from the Pascagoula River Wildlife Management Area, George County, Mississippi. The new species was named Placobdella siddalli Richardson & Moser, sp. n., in honor of the contributions of Dr. Mark Siddall to our understanding of the biology of leeches. Placobdella siddalli Richardson & Moser is similar to other papillated members of the genus Placobdella, but differs from Placobdella ali Hughes & Siddall, 2007, Placobdella rugosa (Verrill, 1874), Placobdella multilineata Moore, 1953, and Placobdella papillifera (Verrill, 1872) in coloration, papillation, ventral striping, and in the possession of a relatively large caudal sucker. In addition, molecular comparison of 626 nucleotides of CO-I between the new species and other papillated leeches (P. ali, P. multilineata, Placobdella ornata, P. papillifera, P. rugosa) revealed interspecific differences of 14.0–18.0% (88–113 nucleotides).

Addeddate

2025-03-17 09:14:44

Bhl_virtual_titleid

210914

Bhl_virtual_volume

v.667 (2017)

Call number

10_3897_zookeys_667_10680

Call-number

10_3897_zookeys_667_10680

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0

Genre

article

Identifier

newspeciesleech667rich

Identifier-ark

ark:/13960/s24d30jncd8

Identifier-bib

10_3897_zookeys_667_10680

Identifier-doi

10.3897/zookeys.667.10680

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tesseract 5.3.0-6-g76ae

Ocr_detected_lang

en

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Latin

Ocr_detected_script_conf

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Page_number_confidence

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Page_range

39-49

Pages

11

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0.0.25

Possible copyright status

In copyright. Digitized with the permission of the rights holder.

Ppi

300

Source

ZooKeys 667

Year

2017

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